Correspondence
cratic friends to. come out swinging for socialized medicine. This has been on their minds since the late 1940s. I say thunder out for it now. Put a uniform on every doctor in the land....
...positions and thus swell the engorged staffat work on this project...
...I write to remind you that at least some of the people who buy your magazine are not e n t e r t a i n e d by Taki's racial witticisms, do not share his fascination with wealth and celebrity, and are not amused by his insulting attitude toward women...
...We could use more of his common sense these days...
...Third, my criticism of the Sullivan solution rests not on the strength of the clergy but on my perceptions of the weaknesses of both the Iranian military and the moderate opposition, not to mention the very lateness of the whole idea...
...but give us jobs with dignity, for instance in aerospace and medical research--WPA astronauts and brain surgeons, it has a ring to it...
...I am no feminist, but I am enraged by his idea that it is funny to evaluate women's politics and their beauty in the same breath--indeed, to argue a relationship between the two...
...Jane Fonda deserves to be dismissed for her political views without physical a t t r a c t i v e n e s s entering the argument...
...or an attitude of skepticism that only a few politicians were willing to express...
...As for the tone of Mr...
...ers...
...Lisa D. Jacobs Ann Arbor, Michigan As a female who is apparently genetically incapable of embracing the wonders of feminism, it is heartening to know that America's feminists have such an articulate foe as Taki to take some of the heat for women like me...
...While the latter did participate in the decision-making process, my own b r o a d e r point is that the most important issues became what choices were made and how, not how much was known (a great deal, as the review itself suggests...
...Conservative men are understandably defensive about feminist issues, but the foolishness of radical feminists does not justify disregard for the feelings of women in general...
...Socialized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . medicine could cost as much as $30 billion annually, but a country that can spend $5.5 billion annually on sending men into outer space can surely spend $30 billion to send fat people to hospital or at least to a waiting line out in front...
...As I read Tom W o l f e ' s review of High Life/Low Life, it dawned on me why I've been feeling rather isolated of late...
...It is not feminism but humanity which suggests that people deserve to be listened to on t h e i r own terms and not exposed constantly to a physical evaluation-at least in print--because they are women...
...Fellow Democrats, charge...
...W o l f e ' s review, I seriously doubt that Taki will make a valuable contribution to your editorial staff...
...Stempel appreciated the interests of the U.S...
...Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C...
...while stationed in Iran, and so I am puzzled why he now conveniently washes his hands of America's "debacle" by his remark, "After all, it is their country...
...Stempel j u s t may have come across during his five years in Iran...
...What a boost that would give to consumer spending...
...Fourth, as I said at the end of my review, the American role in Iran was onlypart of the story, and the onus for the revolution, at least in my mind, lies squarely with Iranians...
...Diplomadc Dissent Though I was f l a t t e r e d to see "Rustam," the reviewer of my book Inside the Iranian Revolution (TAS, July 1982), refer to me as one of "two top American diplomats in I r a n " (I was not), the review is disappointingly shallow and reads like a hastilydone graduate school book r e p o r t . For example, the reviewer cites an alleged memorandum of mine published recently by the Khomeini government as clues to my thoughts, when there is better, clearer evidence easily available in the final chapters of the book...
...Based on "Ugly Women" and on the specimens of Taki's writing cited in Mr...
...S t e m p e l ' s letter, I can in reply only quote Iran's great thirteenth-century poet Sadi, 40 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1982 whom Mr...
...During those years of f e r v e n t rhetoric on b e h a l f of s u r r e n d e r i n g American interests, there seemed to be room for only two opinions: the one-worlders' view that the resources of the ocean were indeed the "common heritage of mankind...
...Needless to say, through the administrations of Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter, the skeptics were much in the minority...
...Where so many b u r e a u c r a t s , lawyers, college professors, and other hangers-on had their self-interest to p r o t e c t , one must certainly give c r e d i t where credit is due to those responsible for forcing our government to take a second look...
...Why not us...
...Admittedly with Medicare and Medicaid we are already close to socialized medicine...
...Heaven will reserve a place for you...
...No doubt the Claiborne Pells of this world will be wringing t h e i r hands for a long time, but I will always think Fritz Hollings hit the nail on the head when he summed it up this way: " T h a t ' s the biggest meet and eat group I ever saw...
...Even more misleading is the reviewer's failure to distinguish between American diplomats and American politicians...
...Carolyn Marvin Annenberg School of Communications University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1982 4...
...I suggest the Democrats demand income supplemeets that will bring every family to the median income...
...And while on the subject of jobs I urge the Democrats to come out for a truly tough affirmative action policy plus more government regulation...
...Arla J. Tracz Falls Church, Virginia We Welcome New Subtw.riber, I think your rag is poisonous, also anti-women, but it's the only interestingly written entry from a perspective mostly devoid of intellectual content, so I'll take advantage of your subscription offer...
...So there you are...
...In the 1970s this was one of the Democrats' favorite sacks of camip...
...If it were a nickel higher I wouldn' t consider it...
...Louis, Missouri Tom Wolfe's Taki Tom Wolfe's review of High Life~Low Life (TAS, July 1982) reminded me of how much I disliked Taki's article "Ugly Women" (TAS, March 1981...
...The Democratic party takes pride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . in the fact that it has goaded us a long way toward socialized medicine, but C 0 R R E S P 0 N D E N C E until all doctors and nurses have been turned into bureaucrats the g r e a t work remains unfinished...
...This article, as I recall, provoked the anger not only of "feminist groups," but also of a number of your read...
...Since the revolution, Iranians have focused on American deficiencies, but there were more fundamental and drastic choices to make and opportunities missed for Iranians--after all, it is their country...
...John D. Stempel Bethesda, Maryland Rustam replies: Mr...
...Finally, to deal with high interest r a t e s let the Democrats call for government allocated credit and that old favorite, wage and price controls - - s p i k e inflation before it begins...
...median wage...
...Then i n t e r e s t e d Americans would have a better basis for assessing the results of their own decisions...
...Frankly, I am amazed even today that the e f f o r t has been derailed...
...Also let us move forward with one of Speaker O ' N e i l l ' s own favored policies, a well-financed public works program...
...Being the widowed mother of four grown sons whose wives are all feminists, I ' v e become more unpopular than any mother-in-law deserves, all because of my obvious lack of appreciation for the women's movement...
...Coyness gets one nowhere in modern American politics...
...Unless you understand what it's like to be antifeminist in a largely feminist world, it's hard to describe my feelings on reading an article in a Catholic newspaper in which the author (a female) was nearly delirious over the news that men today are becoming more "nurturing" and more " c a r i n g " than f a t h e r s were in the past...
...It was clear to me as early as 1974 that a large and self-satisfied bureaucracy was looking a f t e r i t s e l f very well, thank you...
...The Albanians do it...
...Yet, he does not Another policy sure to set the Reaganites on their heels is the guaranteed annual income...
...I d o n ' t want to think that Taki's efforts at humor are applauded by most conservatives, and I don't believe that insensitivity is the conservative message...
...Wouldn't it be interesting to hear from a knowledgeable Iranian about what his countrymen perceive their .choices to have been...
...Most of his criticism of the U.S...
...But until we completely socialize American medicine our government will not fully realize its potential for fouling up American medicine, making it still more expensive, time-consuming, and idiotic...
...I assure you that it is painful and humiliating to be regarded as a more or less decorative object whose ideas need not be listened to as a man's would be...
...The smug chauvinism Taki displays in his article is an attitude women do have to confront on occasion...
...Any country that can patrol a 55 mph limit can patrol the wages and prices of every man, woman, and child...
...Stempel makes four points in his letter...
...Others have insisted that no Ameri can family receive less than half the seem to realize how truly fluid the Iranian situation was from September to December 1978--perhaps because he was not there...
...As for Emmett Tyrrell (all those redundant consonants), he looks p r e t t y , which is why you have t h a t picture of him looking fashionably rumpled, but he also has that giveaway fanatical gleam in his eye which is characteristic of young men who (often) went to Princeton and turned out thinking the whole world should be an extension of that scrubbed suburb of the CIA...
...She seemed totally untroubled by the fact that mothers are becoming increasingly unmotherly, inasmuch as our society now frowns on permitting anything at all to come between a lady and her career or other interests...
...These are the Democratic p o l i c i e s that have bestirred the Republic...
...In 1972 their presidential candidate, the sainted George McGovern of South Dakota, suggested that the government give every American $1,000 annually...
...Regarding the first, I have reread his final chapters and am still at a loss as to his thoughts, and note that he does not deny the cited memorandum...
...The reviewer's understanding of both Iranian and American options in the later stages of the revolution is also one-dimensional...
...The fact that mother and h e r " hood" have now been separated seems of l i t t l e moment to these delighted females...
...He is critical of Ambassador Sullivan's recommendations to strike an accord between the military and the moderate opposition, believing that the religious groups were already too strong to be restrained or diverted...
...Any nation that can send a man to the moon can bring everyone up to the median income no matter how reckless or stupid it sounds...
...I attended several of the sessions and read much of the documentation...
...John F. Hussey St...
...So thank you Taki for speaking out and standing up for something any red-blooded male should be happy to do, and that's to refuse to hand over your manhood to these shrieking shills of feminism's wonders...
...But surely Mr...
...Second, as the books reviewed were written by American diplomats, I concentrated on t h e i r role and comments r a t h e r than on those of American politicians who obviously bear overall responsibility...
...If an ignorant man in his rudeness speaks harshly An intelligent man tenderly reconciles his heart . . . . Seabed Staffers I c o u l d n ' t help but be drawn to R. Emmett Tyrrell's editorial comments in the J u l y issue on the Law of the Sea conference ("Seabed Socialism"), since I spent about five years as e i t h e r a s t a f f p a r t i c i p a n t or observer of those events in the midseventies...
...might more properly be aimed at decision-makers than at America's diplomats in the field...
...The State Department had by then even c r e a t e d a huge " a d - visory committee," most of whose members enjoyed the ego gratification of being invited to comment on U.S...
...Two wise men do not contend and quarrel Nor does a scholar fight with a contemptible fellow...
...If the Democrats will not come forward with t h e i r alternative to Reaganomics, I will...
...As a committee staffer working for Sen...
Vol. 15 • September 1982 • No. 9
